When did hornady start selling 123 gr eld-m bullets?

[Stinky Coyote]

Does anyone know when hornady started making the 123 eld-m's?

[VASCAR2]

The 123 grain ELD-M was probably first produced in the fourth quarter of 2016 or 2017 according to the thread linked below. Doppler RADAR testing showed the polymer tips were heating (deforming) from friction with the atmosphere. Hornady started using a heat resistant tip and tweaked the bullet to improve long range performance over the previous A-Max bullet.

https://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?12763-No-more-123-AMAX-Now-what/page2

[Stinky Coyote]

Right I forgot about the tip change. When did the 123 a-max come into this world?

[VASCAR2]

[Stinky Coyote]

yeah, for some reason I had it that hornady didn't get into the 123 tipped game until the 6.5 Grendel...but before I mouthed off about it I wanted to confirm lol

do we know when hornady jumped in the 6.5 Grendel game? these dates may start coinciding here

[tdbru]

I suppose none of you are old enough to remember the Remington Bronze Point. Made for expansion at long range/low impact velocities. the original tipped bullet. I know I saw them in the early 1970s, perhaps even earlier.....

-tdbru

[Stinky Coyote]

[VASCAR2]

[Fess]

It turns out that expanding bullets with fancy tips are older than I thought. I checked over on the cartridgecollectors.org site for the Bronze tip. Remington patented it in 1924 and someone posted a page from a 1930 Rem-UMC catalog showing a 30-40 Krag with it. It is on the right. On the left is another interesting bullet introduced at about the same time: the Peters Protected Point Expanding. It is a 4-part bullet designed to mushroom but not lose any lead for deep penetration. The lead core has a gilding metal cap over it which is in turn covered by a hollow gilding metal point.

Photo and text from "30army"
Rem Bronze Pt and Peters Protected Expanding Point.jpeg

""

[Stinky Coyote]

that's some history

now does anyone know when the first 6.5mm 123 gr a-max was spotted in the wild?

[LRRPF52]

Hornady specifically developed the 123gr A-MAX for the 6.5 Grendel in 2009, and it showed up in 2010.

They had initially done a 120gr A-MAX loaded cartridge, but it jammed the lands, so they made a more secant ogive 123gr 6.5mm bullet to add to the 95gr V-MAX through 140gr A-MAX and SST line-up. 129ge SST already existed as well and was one of the main Alexander Arms factory ammo loads for hunting. Many of us lived through those times and watched the development transpire in real time. This forum was also involved in the initial production numbers of the 123gr SST a few years later.

[kmon]

Nosler Ballistic tip is the first polymer bullet I remember with the SST and A-Max coming a few years later. Bronze point like stated above predates those by many years.

Ballistic tips came out in the mid 80s if I remember correctly.

[Stinky Coyote]

Hornady specifically developed the 123gr A-MAX for the 6.5 Grendel in 2009, and it showed up in 2010.

They had initially done a 120gr A-MAX loaded cartridge, but it jammed the lands, so they made a more secant ogive 123gr 6.5mm bullet to add to the 95gr V-MAX through 140gr A-MAX and SST line-up. 129ge SST already existed as well and was one of the main Alexander Arms factory ammo loads for hunting. Many of us lived through those times and watched the development transpire in real time. This forum was also involved in the initial production numbers of the 123gr SST a few years later.

you're quite resource Sir, thank you. I knew it would be findable info here.

[oyster]

I suppose none of you are old enough to remember the Remington Bronze Point. Made for expansion at long range/low impact velocities. the original tipped bullet. I know I saw them in the early 1970s, perhaps even earlier.....

-tdbru

I still have a partial box of them!
Jay

[Remington Jim]

I suppose none of you are old enough to remember the Remington Bronze Point. Made for expansion at long range/low impact velocities. the original tipped bullet. I know I saw them in the early 1970s, perhaps even earlier.....

-tdbru

I shot several deer with a 270 Win loaded with REM 130 gr Bronze point bullets in the 70- 80 s . They killed Good !